years. you might remember the pakistani teen who was shot in the head last october for speaking out for girls' rights to education. good news today for her. a series of surgeries for malala soon are going to be over. doctors say she's only got two more to go. one is going to insert a titanium plate to cover an opening in her skull. >> very simply speaking this is putting a titanium plate, especially made, custom made, in the left side, left-hand side of her skull, clearly this is primarily to offer physical protection to her brain, the same way a normal skull was. would. >> we wish her the very best in her recovery, a brave young woman. only 15 years old. that does it for me. brooke baldwin is continuing with "cnn newsroom."

winter to spring, in a matter of hours you'll hear the real reason behind this wild weather. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. nightmare on the school bus. we'll take you inside the hostage situation involving a child and an underground bunker. plus, deja vu. >> what we're talking about is a weapon crafted for war. >> honest people use a gun in this country to defend themselves from criminals the system will not control. >> from the '90s to now. two familiar opponents, once again, battle over guns. and the most expensive home for sale in america has a very famous neighbor. we'll take you inside. this is cnn breaking news.

>> hi, everybody. i'm brooke baldwin. let's begin with this breaking news. several states right now on alert as storms are ripping across the country with a lot of video to get to. i want to begin in georgia where we are getting reports that people are trapped inside their homes after this tornado touched down. watch this. >> tornado right near downtown cartersville slashing toward i-25. a tornado on the ground in adairsville. you can see to the right of the funnel, some of the debris coming up. this is a quarter mile from our location here on highway 41. >> this tornado here you're looking at leveled a small home, flipped over some ten cars, one person died there after a building collapsed and a man, we're also told, was killed in nashville, tennessee, where a tree fell on his home. you're looking here -- look at the colors, the warnings, we're going to talk to chad maiers in

a minute. i want to talk to miguel marquez, he's 60 miles north of atlanta. miguel, we saw the picture here of this tornado. tell me what you're seeing on the ground right now. >> a wide swath of damage through adairsville, it looks like, for the most part. there is a hotel that has been shredded by this storm. there is a plant that makes heavy machinery shredded by this tornado. there are several businesses along the adairsville highway, just off i-75 that have been damaged. there are power lines down throughout the area. trees are down, smashed into cars, trailers overturned, trailers damaged as well. we have seen a couple of neighborhoods where there is fairly significant damage to trailer homes. not clear where that person died, but it is not very far from where i am right now. it is still raining very hard here. the rain has been consistent. it has let up just a little bit. the other thing that is interesting, we left atlanta

about 45 minutes ago, maybe an hour ago. the temperature was about 66 degrees there. it has dropped to 58 here. we're getting into the zone where the temperature changes and it is a dangerous situation out here. we heard tornado warnings and sirens going off as we drove up here in marietta. there was tornado warnings and sirens going off. people throughout the area spending much of this day in their basements. it is a very, very frightening day in this part of georgia right now. >> miguel, do me a favor, hang by, stay on the phone, i want to ask you about the reports of people who are trapped, but, chad myers, let me hop over to you here. tell me, because i got the note from you and the weather folks, this isn't just georgia. i'm looking at tennessee, arkansas, indiana, kentucky affected by some kind of weather. >> about a thousand miles north to south. yesterday it was -- it was arkansas, missouri, oklahoma. and that weather that was here has now charged to the southeast, into very juicy air.

it is hot, it is humid. if it is hot and humid where you are, you are still in the danger zone. storms can still be coming to you tonight because that's anywhere from eastern pennsylvania, even into parts of new york, all the way down to florida. and the cold air is on the back side of it. let me show you the drastic contrast from 11 below zero in minot, north dakota, right now to 78 above in miami. 70 above in atlanta. so from minot to atlanta, you're talking 81 degrees. to miami, look at that, 89. literally you get up into canada, you're talking about just across our continent, north america, 100 degrees from the coldest spot to the warmest spot. you can't have that kind of contrast without something breaking and today what was breaking was the weather. here i'll zoom in for you here this is where we're most concerned still, weather coming into atlanta georgia, all the way up here, the tornado watch box to winston-salem, as far south as the northern part of the florida. so a wide swath of severe

weather still potential for today, brooke. >> so, chad, let me read an e-mail, one of the associate producers on our team here, we are in atlanta, world headquarters of cnn this is happening in the neck of our woods, one of the brothers of one of the folk on our team wrote in and said he's working in alpharetta. he said the sirens are going off in the huge corporation he works in. all the sirens are going off because there are fears that tornadoes are approaching. and he told us everyone was told to move to the center of the building and to quote this e-mail, he says everyone is freaking out. can't say i blame him. chad, i have more for you in a minute. miguel marquez on the phone with me from adairsville. back to the reports of people trapped. do we know where they're trapped? are they still trapped? >> we don't. i can tell you we just pulled up to the daieke plant and it is demolished. there is a bank next to it. the roof has been completely taken off this. there are lines down everywhere.

there is a fire hydrant that has -- that has been taken out and a stream of water shooting up maybe 50 feet at the plant itself. much of the plant destroyed. it is absolute destruction here. there was a hotel called the relax inn that was damaged very badly. it could be that some are trapped there. i understand that most of them, if not all of them have gone now. they apparently have gotten out of this plant though okay. but looking at it now, it is shocking. i don't understand how they could get out because it is -- there is nothing left. it is a pile. it is a pile of rubble at the moment with only part of the building left standing. >> and the name of the inn is the relax inn. miguel marquez, we'll come back to you, hopefully establish a picture from you. you can talk to some of these people as far as what they felt what they saw. miguel marquez for us in and around adairsville, georgia. thank you. now to the big question, the why.

you look here across the country, folks are seeing winter one day and spring the next. take a look with me. you'll see here, topeka, kansas. topeka, kansas, people are out and about playing, record high there about 77 degrees this week. 69 degrees yesterday. feels like spring. but now, 27 degrees. people are freezing, freezing temperatures there and the hot and the cold temperatures, they're what is triggering this violent storm system, like the one that has many on alert in georgia, right now. and like this, look at this. strong winds in texas, tumbleweeds, blowing about everywhere. this is midland, texas. and then we have this video. this is from tennessee. look at what remains, a roof ripped off here because of the extreme winds. roof after roof after roof. homes flattened. and a 47-year-old man, as we mentioned at the top of the show, killed in nashville, when a tree fell on his home. chad myers, let me bring you back in. as we talk about this, it is

like an extreme fluctuation in temperatures, right? why? >> it certainly is. it is because the jet stream dipped from the north to the south, and if you remember where we were at this time last week, the dip, this cold air was in a different spot. the dip was over the northeast. people are going, man, it's cold, how did it get so cold so fast? and then this dip moved into the atlantic ocean. everything moves from west to east. it traveled across and now it is cold in the atlantic and so now all of a sudden the jet stream is dipping to the west, that's why the cold air is here, but it is rising up over here into canada, even warm in parts of newfoundland, up here to nova scotia and that's allowing the warm air to get here. when it is warm and muggy, in winston-salem, or columbia, south carolina, like it is right now on a winter day, something is about to break. that is the break is the cold front you will see storms and thunderstorms all night long, showers even all the way up even into parts of the northeast that

could be heavy enough to cause flooding. it is one of those days where there is so much moisture in the air, the cold air won't let it stay in the air, the cold air pushes into the warm air, the rain and the humidity in the air has to thaw out. some of it makes thunderstorms. some of it makes flooding. >> chad, don't go too far. we'll continue talking and looking at pictures. we'll talk to miguel marquez and a tornado chaser coming up at the top of the hour. don't go anywhere here. let me get to this, developing right now, all eyes on the dow. it is flirting with its all-time closing high. that was 14,164. alison kosik, to you. you've been watching these numbers very, very closely today. and, of course, for those of us with the 401(k), this could be great news, right? >> oh, sure. i would say it is safe to go ahead and look at your portfolio at this point when you see the dow inching toward that 14,000 level. it is about 1.5% away, but it is getting close. we like to talk about the dow a lot. we should also notice the s&p

500. it is also getting close to its record high as well. so makes you wonder why. why is this happening? i'll give you two reasons. one, the federal reserve. what the federal reserve is doing is portion $85 billion each and every month, it is buying up mortgage-backed securities, it is buying treasuries. this is pushing interest rates lower. it is pushing bond yields lower so that means that investors aren't making such a great return on bonds so where is an investor to go? they're going to go into stocks where they're going to try and make more money. that's one reason why you're seeing these levels move up higher. a second reason, you're seeing the small investor come back into the market after the small investor pulled out upwards of $100 billion out of the market last year. just this year the small investor has come back, pouring $13 billion back into the market. and that's partly because of confidence. you know, the average investor is seeing the economy make small improvements. we're seeing improvements in the housing market, consumer spending is going up. i spoke with one trader who was

a little concerned that this is an artificial rally system littlit stimulated by the fed. >> you can say we have already been here. but you can say we came from the depths of despair, we're much higher but the thing that will cause people to continue to to be concerned is it still ahead of itself. is there a correction coming because the fed created this -- manufactured this rally. >> but, brooke, you know, think of the stock market as a big old rubber band. as much as it went down in 2009, march of 2009, the low for the dow was 6500, now we're seeing it bounce back almost to 14,000. you know how that is. what goes up, i don't want to say it, brooke. >> darn that economic gravity. alison kosik, thank you very much. we want to keep talking about this. we were thinking why doesn't wall street match what we're seeing on main street. we'll talk about that with steven moore, wall street journal, about why the dow is up and the economy is still shrinking.

that in a moment. first, more breaking news here. busy wednesday. look at the pictures with me as i walk you through what we know. aerial pictures from our affiliate ktvk. so you see all the cars, fire trucks in the center of your screen. this is the phoenix, arizona, area. police responded to reports of a shooting. we know of multiple victims. this is a business complex. this is 16th street and glendale avenue. the issue with the suspect this is according to affiliates, making calls here at cnn, affiliates are telling us the search is under way for the suspect. i want to bring in someone on the phone with me, she's carol aguile aguilera. she is inside a building just across the street from this phoenix business center where this shooting happened. carol, you with me? >> yes, i am. >> carol, let's begin with your daughter-in-law. she's in this building on lockdown, correct? >> yes. that's correct. >> have you been in touch with her at all? >> yes, i called her as soon as i found out what was going on.

i called her. she's pretty shaken up. you can hear in her voice she was trembling. she said she's hearing a lot of hearsay but doesn't know what happened, it happened so fast. and that they're pretty shaken up for obvious reasons. i would be as well. did she hear shots? >> yes. >> how many shots did she hear? >> i believe it was just a couple that she -- she wasn't -- she's not too sure if it was the shots that she heard but she said it sounded like some bangs but she just doesn't want to comment. >> i won't ask any further. we're looking at pictures here of people being taken out on stretchers. >> yes, they're evacuating. >>e see dogs here. the search for the suspect, maybe suspects, is on. let me ask you this because of your perch. are you near a window? what are you seeing? >> yeah, i'm looking out my window and i see s.w.a.t. cars, police cars, fire trucks. it is the whole street is

blocked off. >> tell me about the phoenix business center. what kind of businesses are inside? >> well, there is mortgage companies, she actually works for a mortgage company. so i'm not too sure what other businesses are in there. >> okay. from what we can tell, this entire building is on lockdown as we see some of the units, police, law enforcement, fire, ems crews on the scene. we're making calls to find out exactly how many people are injured. the extent of those injuries, of course, as this is a fluid situation in these sorts of scenarios. carol aguilera, stay close in touch with us, please. we would love to make sure your daughter-in-law is a-okay once they're hopefully able to get everyone out of the building. thank you so much for calling in. another developing story for you today, this battle under way on capitol hill over guns. you will hear gabrielle giffords in her emotional statement before lawmakers and the nra. ngy teaching the perfect swing begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day.

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then you're going to love this. right now they're only $14.95! wow-a grt deal just got a whole lot better. hurry. $14.95 won't last. we have heard all about it on air, online, but today the national debate over gun control is happening where it really counts, on capitol hill. the first congressional hearing on the issue ever since december's sandy hook elementary school massacre started this morning. look at these people.

look at this line. lines of people on both sides of the issue, wanting and waiting to get in. gun control advocates started with the person who struggled to speak, spoke really just as powerfully as her words. former congresswoman gabby giffords, the target of a mass shooting, two years ago this month. >> thank you for inviting me here today. this is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for democrats and republicans. speaking is difficult, but i need to say something important. violence is a big problem. too many children are dying.

too many children. we must do something. it will be hard. but the time is now. you must act. be bold. be courageous. americans are counting on you. thank you. >> incredible how far she's come in those two years and there is her husband, mark kelly. he testified as well. among those speaking out against this assault weapons ban was wayne lapierre, the executive vice president of the national rifle association. >> we need to be honest about what works and what does not work. proposals that would only serve to burden the law abiding have failed in the past, and they'll fail again in the future.

semi-automatic firearm technology has been around for 100 years. they're the most popular guns for hunting, target shooting, self-defense. despite this fact, congress banned the manufacture and sale of hundreds of semi-automatic firearms and magazines from '94 to 2004. independent studies, including one from the clinton justice department, proved that had no impact on lowering crime. when it comes to background checks, let's be honest, background checks will never be universal because criminals will never submit to them. there are a lot of things that can be done and we ask you to join with us. the nra is made up of millions of americans who support what works. the immediate protection of all, not just our schoolchildren, is what is needed and swift surround punishment of criminals who misuse guns and fixing our mental health system. >> lapierre has been arguing for gun rights for a very long time. and he was around for the first

nationwide assault weapons ban, which expired eight years ago. we have tape, actually, back from the early 1990s of him and senator dianne feinstein, who introduced a proposal for a new ban on specific guns and large capacity magazines. listen and you will see how this gun debate hasn't actually change toad much after two decades. >> if you politicians would only stop talking about more taxes and more gun bans and more regulations on honest people, and spend a little bit of that rhetoric and a little bit of that energy going after violent criminals of complete breakdown of our criminal justice system and the fact we don't even prosecute criminals with guns anymore, because the system has collapsed, maybe then we would make progress. >> also at some point we have got to say enough is enough. otherwise when the nra will not say that you should not permit the civilian sale of bazookas. what we're talking about is a

weapon crafted for war that floats around the streets of our cities, that puts our police in a position of being outgunned by the bad guys, that has kids killing kids with them. >> since the newtown, connecticut, shooting that left 27 dead, the nra says 500,000 more people have joined its membership. anderson cooper, don't miss this, taking on the gun violence debate tomorrow night. he'll take a good long look at both sides of the issue. we're calling it "guns under fire," a town hall special tomorrow, 8:00 p.m. eastern, only here on cnn. just ahead, a nightmare on the school bus. we will take you inside this hostage situation under way still involving this young child and an underground bunker. stay right with me. ly. see, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive... but when i started losing energy and became moody... that's when i had an honest conversation with my doctor. we discussed all the symptoms... then he gave me some blood tests.

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some of the hottest stories in a flash. roll it. first up here, just as we get word north korea is on the verge of another nuclear test, south korea has achieved major space milestone. off it goes, putting a satellite in orbit for the very first time.

before today, south korea tried three different times to try to get a satellite into orbit without success. >> translator: the rocket was successfully launched at 4:00 p.m. the satellite will separate at seconds after launch and it has successfully entered the orbit. >> the pressure to get a satellite into space mounted after north korea's own successful launch last month. now u.s. officials tell cnn they're breaking for pyongyang to conduct a nuclear test underground. also today, massachusetts governor duvall patrick named william cohen to serve as interim u.s. senator, thus replacing senator john kerry. cowan is the chief of staff. he will serve until kerry's successor is chosen in a special election. kerry was confirmed yesterday as secretary of state. that 15-year-old pakistani school girl who was shot in the head by the taliban will undergo more surgery. malala will receive a titanium

plate to repair her shattered skull. shown here. you see the big hole. and also she'll be getting a hearing device to replace her destroyed eardrum. the taliban shot malala in october, after she was speaking out in support of girls getting an education. the surgery will be performed in birmingham, england, where her father has now gotten a job with the pakistani consulate. and stocks are taking a hit today, but that did not dampen the hype for research in motion's new phone, take a good long look at it here, the blackberry 10, the z-10 as it is officially called. came out today. it contains a new operating software that already has 70,000 apps available for it. keep them straight. 70,000. the company enlisted some serious star power to push it. >> i am so excited as well. thank you for reaching out to me. thank you for giving me an early look at this beautiful phone. i love the new browser. it is super fast. i love the hub. >> miss alicia keys. how much is riding on the phone?

research in motion announcing it's renaming itself blackberry. take a look at what a 15-year-old showed her parents. here you go. two simple words on the top of it. she baked the cake, complete with green frosting, served it to her parents and gave a note. i hope you still love me. it is hard not to love someone who baked you a cake, the cake worked like a charm. teen's update on tumbler said my mom saw it and cried of hap happiness. i'm lucky to have such supporting parents. ♪ ♪ so simple then >> she's piers morgan's favorite singer. barbra streisand performing at the academy awards for the first time in 36 years. can you guess what tune she sang last time? 77. the theme from "a star is born". the dow, watching the numbers quickly.

looking at the dow, oh, just under the 14,000 mark, getting close, flirting with that all time high back from october of '07. yet the economy is shrinking. why is that? steven moore breaks it down next. . and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please? ♪ ooh baby, can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a patented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance.

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in southern alabama, just outside of midland city, a rural town, south of montgomery, a gunman boards a school bus, skills the driver and takes a 6-year-old hostage. that little boy is now being held inside this man's homemade bomb shelter. the suspect is identified as 65-year-old jimmy lee dikes. >> i talked to the girl on the school bus and she told me he came on the bus, with a gun, shot into the ceiling or the floor once and shot the bus driver three times after asking for a child -- two children between 6 and 8. school bus driver apparently he did everything he could, he said

can't do that, threw the bus into reverse, floored the gas and that's when the bus alarm came on. and tried to get out of the way, but by the time it was a little too late, he already shot the bus driver three times. >> shot the bus driver three times. take a look at this. this is the dirt road that leads up to this property. further up this road, s.w.a.t. teams have swooped in, wearing tactical gear, carrying shields. let's go straight there to george howell on the scene for us. george, i understand you just have spoken here with what -- a neighbor of this suspect, what did he tell you about this man, dikes? >> this is interesting. this particular neighbor tells me that he had a run-in with dikes just a month ago. he says that he was basically driving on this dirt road, this private road that goes in front of dikes' property. he went across the road, but what he did, his pickup truck got stuck. when it got stuck, he hit the

gas, he put ruts in that dirt berm and -- according to jimmy davis. jimmy davis says, you know, all of a sudden he found himself confronted with an armed man. take a listen to what happened. >> mr. dikes flagged me down and he stopped me and just wanting to cuss and using harsh words at me. i told him numerous times to calm down because my daughter was in the back seat. she then started screaming. and i told him, i said, man, you need to calm down. and i kind of exchanged a few words with him. nothing too harsh. and mr. dikes ran to his vehicle, maybe 20 foot from me, and i turned around to my daughter and was trying to calm her down, and he pulled a pistol out. and by the time i seen the pistol, i took off on the truck pulling the trailer and i made it probably ten foot and he fired the gun twice, discharged it. >> reporter: so, brooke, here's the thing. dikes and davis, they were

supposed to be in court today to talk about this menacing charge that dikes apparently faced, but, again, now we find that he is held up in a bunker, just across the highway here, on his property, with this -- >> oh, did we lose him? he was talking about where this property was because i want to know how police are communicating with this guy and this bunker again. this 6-year-old also reportedly -- this is a special needs child. so this child apparently each and every day needs a specific kind of medication. we're going to work on getting george back up for us so we can sort of continue filling in the blanks on this story and the 6-year-old still being held hostage right now. have you checked your 401(k) lately? we have been peeking at ours more lately as we watch this number here. the dow today, stocks have been on a tear. we're keeping our eye here on the dow jones industrial average. why? because it has been closing in

on it, flirting with the 14,000 mark. take a look at this here. the dow is less than 2%, less than 2% from its record high set back in october of 2007. while the dow now has been climbing, we found out this morning that the economy, despite the dow, hasn't been growing. in fact, it contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012. this is the first time that's happened actually in more than three years. so do we want to talk to? steven moore, i wanted to have you on the show here, our senior economics writer for "the wall street journal." welcome back. >> thank you. i wish we had better news to report. >> we bring you on and it is all, like, debbie downer stuff. let me ask you this. it is not if you have your 401(k) and you're pretty stoked looking at the dow today. but my question is, when we're looking at wall street, versus main street, why are they not in harmony? >> well, it is a great question, because you're right. investors have just made out like bandits in the last 60 days or so. the stock market has done very well, as you just mentioned.

we're at or near an all time high. and the economy just -- the real economy, for workers, really is still pretty poor. and this -- everyone was very shocked, brooke, about the number that came out today. people were expecting 1% to 2% growth. we got negative .1%. now -- >> why is that? >> well, it's a little bit distorted because we had a big reduction in defense spending. and that's because the pentagon is getting ready for these sequester cuts that will start on march 1st. so they're starting to cut back on their spending to prepare for that. so if you take out -- what has happened in government spending, the economy grew by about 1.3%. that's still pretty anemic and i think it suggests we're not out of the woods yet. brooke, let me tell you some good news because i don't want to be the grim reaper here. >> give me the good news. >> since january, the economy has actually done a lot better. you have seen the numbers on housing. they're much improved. that means more construction jobs, right? we have seen some of the initial

unemployment claims numbers that are down, meaning that it looks like we're going to get a pretty decent jobs report on friday. the energy picture looks pretty good. so, you know, it's discouraging that the fourth quarter was so lousy. let's keep our fingers crossed we get a revival of growth this quarter. >> that was the first quarter. we're looking at the current quarter and the dow looking awesome, if i may. you mentioned luxury homes. i don't know if you've seen this pad in dallas, texas, stick around, steven moore. we have pretty amazing pictures here as we look at that. the luxury home market is booming. i don't know if you're looking for that. steven moore, i'll let you go. we keep watching the dow, hopefully we'll hit 14,000 today, we'll watch. an hour and a half away from the closing bell. let me move on, getting breaking news now involving syria. the syrian military is claiming that israel has bombed a research facility. senior international correspondent sara sidner is getting miked up. we'll talk to her about what is

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want to take you live here. this is special moment on capitol hill. we want to eavesdrop for a minute. you're looking at long time massachusetts senator, he's been the chairman of the senate -- senate foreign relations committee, forgive me. john kerry here saying his good-bye before coming the next u.s. secretary of state. take a listen. >> -- the part that they play in our democracy. i will share with you now that i've come to this moment in the journey i can say without reservation that nothing prepares you for it. many times now in 29 years i've been in my desk here on the floor, starting way over there, number 99, listening as colleagues bid the senate farewell. sometimes a farewell speech signals a complete departure from public life. sometimes a new journey,

altogether. sometimes forced departure. sometimes a leap for freedom. i'm grateful that at this moment, thanks to my colleagues, serendipity and the trust of our president, while i'm closing a chapter, it is not a final one. i assure you, amid the excitement and the possibility i do feel a wistfulness about leaving the united states senate. and that's because despite the obvious frustrations of recent days and years, a frustration that we all share this place remains one of the most extraordinary institutions of any kind on the face of the earth. on occasion we all heard a senator leave here and take their leave condemning the senate for being broken, an impossible setting in which to try to do the people's business. well, i want to be very clear about my feelings.

i do not believe the senate is broken. certainly not as an institution. there is nothingrong with the senate that can't be fixed by what's right about the senate. the predominant and weighty notion that 100 american citizens chosen by their neighbors to serve from states is different as massachusetts and montana can always choose to put parochial or personal interests aside and find the national interest. i believe it is the honor of a lifetime, an extraordinary privilege to have represented the commonwealth of massachusetts and the united states senate for more than 28 years. what a remarkable gift it has been to carry the banner of senator from massachusetts just as each of you feel that way about your states. >> calling it an honor of a lifetime, helping represent and serve the good people of massachusetts.

john kerry, we have learned, will be taking the spotlight that secretary of state hillary clinton will be vacating. she has her farewell ceremony this upcoming friday and then supreme court justice elin elen kagan will help swear in senator kerry at his upcoming post this coming friday. we'll show that to you live. meantime, now that. this is cnn breaking news. >> breaking news here as we're getting word, this is from the syrian military, they're saying israel bombed a research facility of theirs. this is right around the capital city of syria, damascus. senior international correspondent sara sidner has gotten up on this for us. sara, tell me what you know. >> reporter: we have been able to confirm with the help of barbara starr that the u.s. military has actually confirmed there was indeed a strike along the syrian/lebanon border. they say that the israeli planes flew over that border and struck some time overnight, our time. we're now in the evening of the

next day. that was tuesday into wednesday. what i can tell you, as i have spoken to the prime minister's office, the foreign affairs office, the military, several people in the military, none of them will confirm or deny this information. they're simply not commenting on the information. but i also spoke with a very high ranking former senior intelligence official who said that there are situations going on right now between syria and lebanon, particularly hezbollah, that are quite disturbing to israel. over the past few years they have information that says that syria has been handing over, transferring, if you will, scud missiles. the significance of scud missiles is that they can carry chemical weapons warheads. there is a lot seems to be going on behind the scenes, but indeed a u.s. official says they can confirm there was an israeli air strike on the syrian/lebanon border. israel is not commenting on that information right now.

>> okay, sara sidner, when you get more information on the strike, on the syrian/lebanon border, we'll bring you back up. sara sidner, my thanks to you from israel. we'll be right back. so...how'd it go? well, dad, i spent my childhood living with monks learning the art of dealmaking. you've mastered monkey-style kung fu? no. priceline is different now. you don't even have to bid. master hahn taught you all that? oh, and he says to say (translated from cantonese) "you still owe him five bucks." your accent needs a little work. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses.

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[ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands a year in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. as president obama throw his support behind an overhaul of u.s. immigration laws, one man has a lot to say on that particular subject. he's bill gates. a couple of years ago, gates testified before congress,

saying hiring immigrants at microsoft is the key to its growth and he sat down with our very own christine romans, who joins me live. christine, what is he saying now? >> you know, i told him that looks like the only consensus you get in washington now is about immigration reform. and what would he like to see? does he think it is possible. he said quite frankly this is the best chance for real reform in years. listen, brooke. >> our immigration system makes it very hard for those people to come in. so if somebody is being offered a job here, for over $100,000, there is other jobs created around that job, you don't want to discourage a company from having to put that -- >> do we discourage them? >> absolutely. you can be a student at uc berkeley, foreign born, get this wonderful subsized education, microsoft offers you a job for over $100,000 a year and we have to say, if the country will keep

you. most of those students are told they can't stay, get out of the united states. >> he says, brooke, that that part of the immigration system, this immigration for smart -- he calls it smart talent, people who come here and create jobs, who already are here, get educations, want to take a stem, science, technology, engineering, math degree, they can't. that part of the immigration system has been held hostage by the problem of illegal immigration, and the real thorny problem in washington for fixing that, he says, you got the best chance in years for both of those to be fixed. he's very concerned, of course, about high tech, skilled workers coming into this country because they're leaving here and starting businesses somewhere else. >> look at you. yesterday, nobel prize winning paul krugman. today, bill gates. i look forward to tomorrow. thank you so much. it is the lifestyle of the rich and the filthy rich, if you will. we'll show you the most expensive home for sale right now in america meer.

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okay, we're about to show you the most expensive home on the market right now in the u.s. going to give you a moment. think about where it might be. the answer, i think, might surprise you. we'll get to that in a moment. did you know the sales for luxury homes, they are up. billionaires have been really on a buying spree for more than a year. and sales really took off toward the end of 2012. look at this. sales of $1 million plus homes, they spiked in november, up 51% over a year earlier. and now the most expensive home for sale in america is, where is it? not san francisco, not new york.

it is in dallas, texas. look at this. you can see it all the way from google earth. the property. it is more than fit for j.r. ewing, the crespi hicks estate, multiple pools, multiple homes, asking price, a cool $135 million. look at that. 25 acres near downtown, 42,000 square feet. you can see here, three separate buildings. morgan brennan, you wrote about this in "forbes" magazine. i looked at the pictures of the home. apparently it is a pool house and guest house and main house that you can probably get lost in for days. what makes this estate so pricey? >> well, a lot of it is in the eye of the beholder. in the case of super luxury real estate like this, also in the eye of the seller and what they believe their home is worth. so in this particular case, the sellers here believe their home is worth $135 million. i have it on some -- from some good sources that they put over $100 million into restoring and

new construction in this house. it took almost a decade to do that. so that, plus the land, $135 million. >> i'm, like, are they growing diamonds? we know the neighbors reportedly are, laura and george bush, a former president here. so what is behind this spike? what is behind this trend in buying up these luxury homes? >> well, we have actually seen, as you mensed, we ha ementioned billionaire buyers coming in and plunging down record amounts for homes across the u.s., trophy homes across the u.s. as these sales happen, more potential sellers believe that they can sell their homes and they put them out on the market and maybe put them out with a really lofty price tag. sometimes the market supports that, sometimes it doesn't. we saw another major record-breaking sale, mentioned san francisco, this was in woodside, and that's $117.5 million sale that happened in november. so in some cases i guess billionaires are buying these massive luxury estates. >> i guess if you can afford it.

i think i would rather take a vacation around the world. but that's just me. morgan brennan, good to see you. thank you. >> good to see you. much more on our breaking news here. we're watching the severe storms ripping across the country. look at this, tornado pictures out of georgia. deadly tornado. we'll talk about the storm chaser and chad myers coming up.

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storm system has several states on alert right now, heavy damage has been reported in at least a half dozen states with one person dead in both georgia and tennessee. want you to listen and really watch here. we have video of this tornado hitting a town in north georgia. >> looks like a tornado right near downtown cartersville at this moment. slashing toward i-75. a tornado, apparently about on the ground here in adairsville, you can see to the right of the funnel, some of the debris now coming up. this is only about a quarter of a mile from our location here on highway -- >> this tornado here, this leveled a small home. see some of the trailers, cars, flipped ten cars, we're told. and now some new footage here. aerial video this is tennessee. roofs ripped off, what looks to be some sort of manufacturing plant, person died when a building collapsed and a man killed in nashville, tennessee, when a tree fell on his home. got a lot of people to talk to. miguel marquez joins me live from adairsville, just about 60

miles north of atlanta. we also have someone joining us who is very familiar with storms like this, storm chaser and adventurer george caronis and chad myers here. lots of voices, keep this conversation going. miguel on the phone with me, let me begin with you. paint me the picture of what you're looking at. >> utter destruction. i think we're not very far from where that reporter saw that tornado touching down. we are at the daieke plant in the mid le of adairsville and this place just got hammered. the plant is completely destroyed. 150 to 200 people in the plant. we spoke to a couple of workers in there this morning. they took refuge in the restroom and they just, you know, they could feel the pressure on the walls, could feel it in their bodies. they knew it was coming. and one guy was a baptist minister and he said, all he could do was pray and pray and pray some more. they literally thought they were going ing ting to die. they were very, very shaken.

amazing that everybody was killed -- that nobody was injured in this building. there are cars overturned up and down the road. the main road through adairsville right now. they're across the street from here is -- it is almost cliche, but it is amazing. there is one building that is completely destroyed. another building that is damaged, but not destroyed at all. and just on the other side of that, completely destroyed another building. this tornado came through here and just was very selective, but completely devastating in the targets it found. >> it is almost like it sounds like that zigzag we hear so often when we talk about tornadoes. miguel, thank you so much. george, let me bring you in. i hope you have a monitor. have you seen pictures of this, this tornado we have been showing out of adairsville, georgia? >> well, i've seen a few clips from the adairsville tornado and it looks like something that i would be used to seeing in kansas, in may. so it is very ahtypical for thi time of year. but we occasionally get deep south tornado outbreaks in late january, february.

they tend to be fast moving storms and therefore quite dangerous. but they do happen. and people that live in that part of the country really do need to watch it pretty much year round. it can happen. >> i just jotted down a note here hearing our reporter, talking about the people taking shelter, they felt pressure on the walls, pressure on their bodies. how is that? simply obviously pressure from the storm. >> well, this center of the tornado is a center of low pressure. so as one approaches you, your ears are going to pop, just like you're going up in a high elevator or in a plane. it will flex the walls. you'll get the sound of all the debris hitting the building that you're in and that's what sort of people always describe a tornado as sounding like a freight train going through and that's the building around you coming apart. so that combined with that low pressure makes for a surreal experience that most people certainly do not want to be through. >> george, it is chad myers. it says storm chaser on your title. i want to not make this sexy.

would you ever, in your life, consider chasing a storm that was moving northeast at 60 miles an hour, in georgia, where trees go down all the time rather quickly, would you ever consider that to be a safe chase? >> not really, no. i like being out in the great open -- wide open plains where you can see what is going on. with storms moving that fast with poor visibility, lots of rain, lots of trees, lots of population, very high population density, it is so dangerous. i do this because i love to do it. and whenever i see someone who needs help, i immediately stop the chase and help them out. but in a situation like this, where the storms are indeed moving so fast, the danger potential is so high, if there say tornado warning for your area, don't go out and chase it. i don't even chase that kind of thing. get into your basement. >> fantastic. that's the right answer. >> you hear a storm chaser saying i wouldn't go out and

chase it, don't think about it. george, thank you so much. i have a quick question for you, we were talking about the odd fluctuation in temperature, i hopped off the plane from new york, new york versus atlanta, it was freezing. it is beautiful here. and then later today it is supposed to be so much cooler. and that is sort of the trend elsewhere as well. >> i'll train your -- check your ability to zoom in on that map right over there. and what happened in st. louis. >> go for it, rocky. >> in the past few hours, 32 degree temperature difference in st. louis from where we were. >> that's crazy. >> philadelphia up 16 and it is the cold front, the up and down of the jet stream, really making everything, you know, it is the severity and it is the energy and it is the power that these storms have when temperatures can go up 16 or down 32, depending what side of the front you're on. >> okay. perhaps it is what -- >> thanks, rocky, good job. >> thank you, rocky. we'll leave it there, chad myers, thank you so much. i think the weather is fascinating. but i want to get to another breaking story, we're watching

what has been happening in phoenix, arizona. show you some pictures. one person here in a stretcher being rolled out of a shooting situation in this phoenix, arizona, area. business center. this is sort of this business park. according to our affiliates what we can tell, this happened in and around one of these business areas this is a business complex, a suspect has left the area. this is the frightening part, because police, they don't know where he or she is. they're still looking for him right now. but i just spoke with a woman who was sitting in a business area nearby whose daughter-in-law was inside this business complex, currently on lockdown. here is what she told me. >> i called her at soon as i found out what was going on. i called her. she's pretty shaken up. you can hear in her voice she was trembling. she says she's hearing a lot of hearsay but doesn't really know what exactly happened. it just happened so fast. and that they're just pretty shaken up. >> for obvious reasons. >> yes. >> i would be as well.

did she hear shots? yes. >> how many shots did she hear? >> i believe it was just a couple that she -- she wasn't -- she's not too sure if it was the shots that she heard, but she said it sounded like some bangs, you know, but she just doesn't want to comment. >> i won't ask any further. we're looking at pictures here of people being taken out on stretchers. >> yes, they have been evacuating. >> we see dogs here as we mentioned, the search for the suspect, maybe suspects is on. let me ask you this, because of sort of your perch, tell me, are you near a window? what are you seeing? >> yeah, i'm looking out my window and i see s.w.a.t. cars police cars, fire trucks. it is just a the whole street is blocked off. >> that was carol aguilera on the phone with me, again. pictures here from the phoenix area. we are getting our correspondent casey wian up and towards the scene. as soon as we see him or get information from him, we'll bring that to you live here on cnn. and is this story develops,

today, the national debate over gun control is happening where it really counts, on capitol hill. the very first congressional hearing on this issue since december sandy hook school massacre started this morning. look at this. the lines here, people on both sides of the issue, they're waiting to get in. gun control advocates started with one person who struggled to speak, really was just as power fm ful as her words. gabby giffords, the target of the mass shooting two years ago this month. >> speaking is difficult. but i need to say something important. violence is a big problem. too many children are dying. >> countering the congresswoman was wayne lapierre, the executive vice president of the nra. see him there in the middle of the -- that's mark kelly, but

he's there as well. there he is in the glasses. shaking hands with mark kelly, lapierre, pretty much against everything on the table, regarding gun control, including those universal background checks, that's been proposed. listen to wayne lapierre's exchange with senator patrick leahy, the chairman of the judiciary committee. >> talking about gun shows. should we have mandatory background checks at gun shows? for sales of weapons? >> if you're a dealer, that's already the law. if you're -- >> that's not my question. please, mr. lapierre, i'm not trying to play games here. but if you could, just answer my question. >> i do not believe the way the law is working now, unfortunately, that it does any good to extend the law to private sales between hobbyists and collectors. >> so you do not support mandatory background checks in all instances at gun shows? >> we do not because the fact is the law now is a failure the way

it is working. >> joe johns, let me bring you in here for me in washington. we have been hearing that this one idea of the universal background checks could really be one the one poithe one point debate that could be agreed upon by both sides, but that doesn't seem like the case now, does it? >> it is an uphill battle but there is still a chance. they're willing to take a look at universal background checks, in principle, brooke. but the people who moved to the middle on this, there needs to be a system that works and doesn't take away the rights of legitimate gun owners to bear arms. the nra is opposed to universal checks because the current system is broken and how do you write a law to fix it, especially if you want to include private sales and all the other transactions that don't get picked up by the system. and there are a lot of them, brooke. >> what about this -- the hearing focused as well on this gap in the justice system, that there are laws against drug

trafficking but nothing if you do the same with guns. >> yeah. what you're talking about here, for example, is members of street gangs and drug cartels say going to a state that has more permissive laws on firearm sales and they load up the trunk of a car with guns and then they drive to a very restrictive state on firearms and basically sell everything they have got in a parking lot or street corner. you're talking about interstate transport of guns for illegal purposes. and right now, believe it or not, there is no federal trafficking law for guns on the books. clearly a lot of people in congress are interested in stopping criminals from having guns, so that on its face is something that seems to be getting a bit of support on the hill, brooke. >> joe jonzhns, thank you. guns, gun control in the spotlight across the nation. the question we're asking, is there a solution to america's gun problem? join anderson cooper as he looks at this controversial debate in

guns under fire tomorrow night. set your dvrs, watch it live, 8:00 eastern, here on cnn. right now, all eyes on these numbers. all eyes on the dow here. it is flirting with its all time high. that closing high of 14,164. just shy of that 14,000 mark here. alison kosik on the floor there of the new york stock exchange. what does this mean for anyone checking their 401(k)? great news, right? >> it means your 401(k) most likely is doing pretty well, considering. but it is not just the dow that is reaching these record levels. the s&p is getting pretty close as well. but let's stick with the dow for a moment. i want to show you the roller coaster ride it has been on. you look at the dow in 2007, that's hwhen it reached the hig, but it plunged to 6500 in 2009. that is a free fall because the economy was in a free fall. we're back to these -- close to the record levels. why is this happening? for one, the fed has a lot to do

with it. the fed, the federal reserve, is pumping $85 billion into the economy. it is buying up mortgage-backed securities, buying up treasuries every month, pushing interest rates lower. it is pushing bond rates lower which means investors aren't so interested in investing in bonds, if they're not going to make must have money. whe where is an investor to go? right here to the stock market. that's one reason why you're seeing stocks go up so high. small investors are coming back to the market. just this year, small investors put $13 billion back into the market. part of that reason, brooke, is because they're confident again. they're seeing the economy slowly but surely, just signs of recovery. the housing market, the consumer spending is picking up as well. although this trader does tell me, brooke, there is some concern that these levels that we are seeing on the s&p are inflated because of the fed pouring money into the market. but there is the -- a bit stronger economy behind it as well. brooke?

>> alison kosik, thank you much. as the dow gets closer and closer to an all time high, the economy shrinks. so what gives? and what does this mean for you? i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. nightmare on the school bus. we'll take you inside the hostage situation involving a child and an underground bunker. plus, it's got everyone talking. and it hasn't even aired yet. the vw super bowl ad, is it racist? and pollution is so bad in one city, one guy is selling canned air in different flavors. wait until you hear this. so if ydead battery,t tire, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergency roadside assistance is there 24/7.

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[ male announcer ] when diarrhea hits, kaopectate stops it fast. powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. fast! [ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kaopectate. this is cnn breaking news. we're getting a little bit more information for you on this story that has been percolating out of phoenix, arizona, involving, as you can see, several injured. the shooting had a phoenix business center and that shooter or shooters, according to

police, still not found. they're searching for that individual right this very moment. certain people, victims are being treated for their injuries. casey wian is on the phone with me. he's in the phoenix area, headed to the scene right now. casey, what do you know? >> well, brooke, the latest information from the phoenix police department is three people were shot at an office building in phoenix. all of them had injuries that were nonlife threatening. no fatalities. one injury, though, was described as extreme. the office building is in the medical industry, but it is not a hospital. the building remains evacuated as a precaution. the suspect is described as a white male in his 19 -- i mean in his 60s. he was described by one witness as having fled the area, possibly in a white vehicle. we have been monitoring police radio traffic on our way to the phoenix area and it is clear that officers are searching for

two other vehicles that the suspect is linked to and may be in. they're also searching multiple locations and interviewing witnesses. >> did we lose him? we lost him. that was casey wian explaining they're looking for the suspect. let me reiterate, a white male in his 60s, fled, possibly according to one witness in a white vehicle. so just a heads up if you're in and around this area in phoenix, arizona, as police are trying to find this suspect. let me move on here and take you inside this bizarre cult, this involves allegations of sex slaves, human trafficking, child bribes, forced labor. and a leader who says he is the reincarnation of jesus christ. here he is. the cult called defenders of christ was uncovered just across the u.s. border in a ranch here, nuevo laredo, mexico. two dozen people were found living in a filthy home during

this police raid. the mexican government describes them as hostages. rafael romo is our senior latin american affairs editor. you've been doing research on this cult. we talk about this ranch this filthy home. what happened inside? >> just an incredible story of entrapment, exploitation and deception. we have been looking at this all afternoon and in addition to what the mexican officials are telling us, that the leader of this cult was a spanish national according to mexican authorities, was not only forcing people to work for him, but what we have learned since is that he was also forcing women inside the cult to essentially become prostitutes, exploiting them for every possible reason, and the way he operated was he would tell them that he would teach them how to perform miracles, essentially how to cure people from cancer -- >> miracles, huh? >> even how to bring back the dead. people eventually, because he was incredibly deceptive, would listen to him and believe him and give him their paycheck,

everything they had, and once he had their money, he had them completely. and they basically became their slaves. it is an incredibleé@ story of deception. >> it is disgusting. we talk about this guy, who calls himself the reincarnation of jesus christ. we have looked on the website this is what the website says. show part of it here with the leader's face, compared again to that of jesus christ. look at the picture side by side. who -- rafael, who is this guy? >> he is a spanish national who has been operating, according to authorities in different parts of the world. he has in several countries in latin america, back in about 2009. he goes to mexico. at first he was selling online courses for people to learn something that he calls bioprogramming, which is how to program your brain to teach you to control people's minds. after that, he assembled a sizable group of people, of followers, and started proclaiming himself as jesus

incarnate here on earth. and after that, everything started getting worse and worse with this guy, the suspect controlling people's finances, eventually -- now he's behind bars. >> now he's behind bars. rafael romo, thank you for that story out of nuevo laredo. now, have you seen this yet? >> jim. >> julia, turn the frown the other way around. >> hey, dave. you're from minnesota, right? >> yes. the land of 10,000 lakes. >> this is the new ad from volkswagen. set to debut on super bowl sunday. white guy, jamaican accent, some people saying this ad is racist. what do you think? send me a tweet. we'll take on this commercial controversy next. ♪ alright, let's go.

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volkswagen's new super bowl ad is sparking some controversy. take a look. >> i hate mondays. >> yeah, they're the worst. >> no worries, man. everything will be all right. yeah, man. don't fret. sticky bun comes soon.

yeah. wicked coffee, mr. jim! julia. >> let me bring in geek factory's branding and social media consultant brandon shankman in new york. we love having you on. let me say this, you know. a couple of people, you have new york times columnist charles blow told cnn this week this ad is quote/unquote black face with voices. also ad critic barbara lippert called it racist on the "today" show. my question to you is, are those concerns fair? what do you think vw was going for from a marketing perspeive? >> they were going for fun. vw has been known for fun. they're the ones who did the darth vader commercial two years ago with the little kid and these people weren't complaining about, you know, racism towards citizens of tatouine th. this is a fun commercial. i saw the commercial, as soon as the promos hit. there is no offense intended.

i think they're looking for controversy where none exists. >> i can hear the other side saying, peter shankman, those are citizens of tatouine versus citizens from jamaica. >> to compare it to black face is a stretch. black face was demeaning, derogatory. this is poking fun in a good -- not in an insulting way to jamaica. all the ads in jamaica, visit jamaica, jamaica tourism, they show the same thing with the same voices and the same people having a good time. i think it is a stretch to say it is a racist ad. >> what is the saying? no such thing as bad pr. the fact we're talking about it is something they probably love, including, let me get to the next one. kate upton, lovely lady, seen her in person at the white house correspondents dinner, she rocked the cover of swimsuit edition of "sports illustrated," but here you have this lovely lady, clearly distracting the fellows from washing a car, this mercedes ad, kind of. watch part of the clip.

♪ peter shankman what is this all about here? >> you really are asking me to criticize an ad -- >> i'm not asking you to criticize a darn thing. but isn't this -- isn't this a -- like a teaser ad to an ad, isn't it? >> it is. it is a teaser ad to an ad. this is the same person who did an ad for hardee's or carl's jr. where she's making love to a burger at a drive through restaurant. these ads are designed to shock. if you read more than half an inch into them, it is possibly time to get a hobby. you're not looking at -- they're not saying, we're going to design ads to insult people and get them upset. they're designed to make you watch them over and over again on youtube, walk them at the super bowl and talk about them. if there is no humor in the ad, it is not effective. we're talking about it constantly, three or four times a day now. certainly doing its purpose.

>> i love she's not the one washing the car. it is these guys who are drooling watching her watch them watch the car. peter shankman, thank you very much. see you next time. new developments here out of our breaking story. back to what we know involving syria, the syrian military is claiming that israel has bombed a research facility and we now know what kinds of missiles were used here. stay right there. good morning. ♪ my friends are all around me ♪ my friends, they do surround me ♪ ♪ i hope this never ends ♪ and we'll be the best of friends ♪ ♪ all set? all set. [ male announcer ] introducing the reimagined 2013 chevrolet traverse, with spacious seating for up to eight. imagine that.

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this is cnn breaking news. >> u.s. officials are confirming to us here at cnn that israeli forces attacked a convoy right along the lebanese/syrian border. sara sidner joins me now here from israel. and, sara, tell me more about this convoy. what was this convoy apparently carrying? >> reporter: the u.s. official said it was carrying sa-17 missiles, that the strike was conducted to try and stop those

missiles from going into the hands of hezbollah, a known enemy to israel. one of the issues here is that the syrians are also saying that there was another area bombed and they're blaming israel for bombing a research center. what we do not know if these are one and the same. israel, we talked to the prime minister's office, we talked to several people in the military. we also talked to the foreign ministry. no one in israel will confirm or deny that this indeed happened, but a u.s. official has confirmed to cnn from their information that israel has struck inside of syria. they were targeting a convoy that was carrying sa-17 missiles, that were heading to hezbollah, to lebanon, which is right on the border, as you know, with israel. brooke? >> sara sidner, thank you so much. now to this here, new details, new details today on that trial of sex, lies, explicit photos and now gas cans.

jodi arias on trial now. she's accused of viciously killing her ex-boyfriend, travis alexander. and when i say vicious here, prosecutors say this woman stabbed him not once, not twice, 27 times. slit his throat from ear to ear before shooting him twice in the head. she claims self-defense. joey jackson on the case with me today. joey, welcome. >> thank you, brooke. >> listen, prosecutors, they want the death penalty for arias. now this previous ex-boyfriend coming forward saying she asked to borrow gas cans a day before the killing. gas cans? >> well, here's what they're trying to establish. first of all, the defense started their case and they started yesterday. today was their second day. and what they're trying to show through this witness is two things, really. one, that she was a normal person, that she had a loving relationship, that she wasn't a stalker, that she wasn't this crazed person, that the prosecution is pointing her out to be. the second thing they were trying to establish through this witness, brooke, is that she

changed when she met the victim here, travis alexander. however, there is no perfect witness and that same witness had to admit that she, jodi arias, wanted to borrow some gas cans. so why? the prosecution will say to you that it was premeditation because she planned on taking a long drive, not stopping, to carry out this vicious act. so that's a the significance of the gas cans to the case. >> so when you listen to both sides of this, joey jackson, who, thus far, seems to have the stronger case? >> well, certainly, brooke, you examine the case in total, it is an uphill battle for the defense without question. why? because of the items you mentioned, brooke. 27 times, slit ear to ear, two shots to the head. it is crazy. who would do this? however, the defense is trying to establish that she suffered from battered woman syndrome and ptsd, post traumatic stress disorder, such that she was driven to this event, driven to this act out of self-defense. they're trying to show that

travis alexander used her as an object, she was sexualized, he was sexually deviant and in defending herself, she was justified in her mind to engage in this vicious act which she says is justified. >> 27 times. joey jackson, thank you so much. and we have been watching here through the show, of course, the breaking news, the severe weather that swept through the southeast area. we have new pictures of the aftermath, the damage on the ground next. [ mrs. hutchison ] friday night has always been all fun and games

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take a look with me. here is the tornado from a little bit ago from adairsville, georgia, shot by one of the reporters of our affiliate wsb tv out of atlanta. adairsville 60 miles north. to the right side, chad myers, this is apparently the first pictures we're getting of the damage. and i'm squinting to try to see what we see. looks like a gas station.

i can't really tell. >> it is hard to see. i've seen a lot of video out of here. cars are upside down, homes are destroyed. and it is very hard to get in there. the police have the entire place cordoned off. even for our reporters with i.d.s and badges, it is still going to be hard for us to show the worst damage until we can get a helicopter in the air and get some of these aerials. right now helicopters can't fly. it is too dangerous out there for helicopter to be in the air. there you see some of the -- >> the line is down, it is a better picture. line is down, trees down, damage will continue. we'll keep watching. chad myers, thank you very much. from weather to business news we go here. research in motion has suffered through network outages, falling stock prices, and pretty stiff competition from apple's iphone and android devoices. n now the company is looking for a turn around. earlier today it announced the company will get a brand-new name here, blackberry. also released a new operating system and announced two new phones, but will that be enough to save the company? ali velshi got his hands on the new blackberry z-10 and he's

test driving it for a week. ali? >> no buttons on the blackberry. >> no buttens may not be news to you, but it is big news for blackberry users. many of whom won't know what to make of the z-10. canada's research in motion is counting on this totally virtual phone to allow it to live to fight another day. after a year long delay, and years of neglecting the onslaught by apple and android-based phones, rim finally unveiled its new blackberry 10 mobile operating system, and the first phone to run it. >> we needed to make sure we delivered quality that people expect from us. right call. and we got out of the noise and the holiday season. i think now we have a lot of attention as you can see. it was the right call. >> as the long time blackberry user and hard keyboard lover, i've been evaluating the new phone in real world conditions. i'm a heavy user and a champion thumb typist. being new to the virtual keyboard world, my e-mail output

has been cut in half. while i got used to it. but the company says the keyboard is easier to use and more intuitive than its virtual competitor. >> select it just by flicking it into -- the -- >> the piece de resistance is that it grabs words from your device and names from your contacts and predicts in a very customized way what you're likely to type, allowing you to compose entire sentences just by flicking the complete words which appear on the keyboard up toward the screen. all of it can be done with one hand. for those users for whom a virtual keyboard is still a nonstarter, you'll have to wait until april for a model with a hard keyboard. bu built on a brand-new operating system not a single line of code is copied from blackberry's existing platform. battery life isn't great, but unlike iphone and many an dridr phones you can still change the battery. the blackberry ten uses balance,

which basically allows the device to be strictly split so the corporate side of it can adhere to the company's rules while on the other side of the split personality you can do your personal business. >> these are secure. the information in them is secure. i can't take anything out of the work space into my personal side. when i'm on the personal side, as an end user, i can remain confident that none of the tweets that i'm sending, the pictures i'm sharing, are things that my employer can have access to. it is really and truly a dual persona device. >> reporter: the two sides of the device never cross each other. keep in mind, though, your company has to authorize and enable this feature. research in motion's ultra secure, ultra efficient back office systems allowed them to dominate the corporate world. increasingly, though, companies are letting people choose what device they use. back in 2009, 20% of all smartphones globally were blackberries. today, just 6%. the stock is down more than 80%

in five years. the question is whether this phone can change all of that. >> who are you trying to steal from? iphone users or android users? >> i'm not stealing, i'm winning. we're not excluding anyone from what the future of blackberry experience is going to be. we want to win as many as we can. [ female announcer ] when a woman wears a pad she can't always move the way she wants. now you can. with stayfree ultra thins. flexible layers move with your body while thermocontrol wicks moisture away. keep moving. stayfree.

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if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally. want to take you to egypt now where its own defense minister says the nation is on the brink of collapse.

amid all this fighting on the streets today, a shift in the political landscape. a hard line islamist party that has up until now supported president mohamed morsi is now in talks with secular opposition groups. and in her final week here as secretary of state, hillary clinton had these words for morsi. >> i think the messages and the actions coming from the leadership, you know, have to be changed in order to give people confidence that they're on the right path. >> cnn international senior correspondent ben wedeman is in cairo. ben, i know you call cairo your second home. is the country -- is it truly on the brink of collapse? >> reporter: well, i think what the minister of defense was talking about, the state, the government, being on the brink of collapse. the concern is that with this continued clashes, and these outbreaks of clashes that are

happening with regular frequency, with the political logjam that exists between the muslim brotherhood led government and the opposition, and with an economy that is shrinking before your very eyes, two of cairo's major hotels are now closed down. one of them partially ransacked because of these clashes. it is impossible, almost, to find a tourist here. so it is this accumulation of things that has the defense minister worried that the state, the government may not be able to function if this continues for much longer. >> in berlin, we know that president morsi said, let me quote him, egypt will achieve a state of law and order that is not run by the military. ben, when you look at the pictures, it is no wonder no tourist wants to go to cairo now when you see this. how bad does it have to get before morsi sends the army in? >> reporter: actually, morsi has

already sent the army in to three cities along the suez canal. but the worry is not morsi sending the army in. the worry is the army is going to go in against his will. that basically they will take over the country if the civilian politicians cannot manage to get the country back on track, get the economy working again, start to invest -- to attract foreign investment. the worry is that the military will say, you guys in the civilian clothing can't do the j job. we the generals will take over. >> ben wedeman for us, thank you, for us in cairo. in a matter of minutes, facebook, did a belly flop when it went public, reveals its earnings. we have the social network's play by play next. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved

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we are checking the clocks. nine minutes away from the closing bell. take a look at the big board for me. the number, 13,904, we're inching closer, as you can see right now. we want to look at this because the one stock to watch, facebook. the company reports earnings today right after the "closing bell," the stock has been pushing a five-month high just in the past couple of weeks. after that, of course, infamous disaster of a debut. dan simon has more.

>> reporter: it has been a wild ride since the company went public last may. the stock, which debuted at $38, briefly climbed to 45, then went spiralling. eventually tumbling to a low of 17. here at facebook headquarters, the memory of that day quickly faded as the stock price took a nose-dive. there were renewed questions about the company's ability to generate revenue and whether it can stay well ahead of the competition. google plus, twitter, and now even yahoo! with its photo app, flicker. >> mark zuckerberg doesn't lay awake thinking about google plus. he lays awake thinking about instagram. >> reporter: a cautious zuckerberg took instagram off the table, buying it for $1 billion. most valley insiders see the

price tag as a worthy investment. >> i think it was a smart acquisition. the challenge is, in some sense they were playing with phony money. the value that the market was giving them was so high. do you give up 1% of your company to a small company that has a chance to take over your entire user base? it's an insurance policy and a small price. >> reporter: the jury is still out on the other moves, such as gifts in the e-commerce and smartphone advertising, quickly seen as the key to facebook's growth. >> they are doing a good job on putting a focus on mobile but they haven't really addressed the monday tie zags on mobile yet. >> reporter: no one is sure how ads will appear on smartphones but what is clear is how the ceo has evolved. zuckerberg appears more confident. the more seasoned executive is

getting more political. agreeing to host a fund-raiser next month for chris christie. he's kept a low profile when it comes to partisan politics. as for facebook, while its stock has apparently stabilized, questions remain whether it can truly be the cash cow so many investors were banking on. dan simon, cnn, san francisco. like mango jalapeño shrimp and parmesan crunch shrimp. just $11.99. offer ends soon! i'm ryon stewart, and i sea food differently.

some of our top stories for

you in a flash. it's called rapid fire. will the public be allowed to witness the trial of two members of a wildly popular high school football team accused of raping a girl at a party? the girl's parents wanted the steubenville trial closed to protect her privacy. the judge denied those requests. also today, massachusetts governor duval patrick has named william cowan named as interim to replace john kerry. he will serve until kerry's successor is chosen in a june 25th election. just minutes ago, we played a little for you, we have more of senator kerry finishing up his farewell speech on the senate floor. that speech is 42 minutes long. here he is. >> five times massachusetts has voted to nd